Beer ice cream and ice cream beer, made with a dash of activism. (screenshot)

Peanut butter and jelly. Laverne and Shirley. Peas and carrots.

And now, beer and ice cream.

Fort Collins-based New Belgium Brewery and Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream announced a partnership in April that would bring us a new beer: Salted Caramel Brownie Brown Ale. But it’s expanded beyond just the beer. Behold: Ben & Jerry’s New Belgium Salted Caramel Brown-ie Ale: beer ice cream with salted caramel swirls and fudge brownies. And a project on environmental awareness, to boot.

“Besides the obvious reasons of why beer and ice cream — because they’re both delicious — it’s about business being a force for good,” New Belgium’s production director Travis Burge said in a video (that you can watch below.)

This may be the first time Ben & Jerry’s has had age verification on its website. (screenshot)

In addition to being a new adventure in flavor, the collaboration is geared to raise awareness and spur activism surrounding climate change. The two companies will donate a portion of sales to “Protect Our Winters” or “POW,” which works within the snow sports community to fight climate change. They are also asking customers to reach out to elected officials in support of new EPA regulations under the Clean Power Plan.

Earlier this year, New Belgium’s activism put them in hot water with many residents of the northwestern Colorado coal mining town of Craig. The company donated $9,080 to WildEarth Guardians — a Santa Fe-based environmental group that contends the federal government failed to adequately assess the environmental impact of a 2006 Colowyo mine expansion. A ruling on a federal lawsuit filed by the group could close the mine and put many in the town out of work — a fear that prompted about a dozen liquor stores and bars to pull New Belgium products after learning the company is a WildEarth Guardians supporter.

The ice cream is available at Ben & Jerry’s scoop shops around the area, which you can locate here. The beer — a brown ale laced with chocolate, salted caramel and vanilla — is currently only available in New Belgium’s Folly assorted 12-pack, according to a spokeswoman, and six-packs of the new brew will be on shelves on Nov. 2. And for those of you that are extra adventurous, New Belgium and Ben & Jerry’s even put together a list of potential beer ice cream floats.

A group of women forging a new model for clothing manufacturing on the Western Slope won the fifth annual Wright Award Tuesday night.

The Whole Works, a Rifle-based clothing production facility that employs women transitioning from federal assistance, bested 10 other finalists in the annual Wright Awards ceremony at the Space Gallery, earning $5,000 and recognition as one of the state’s most innovative companies. Previous Wright Award winners include Flylow, Mile High Mountaineering, Voormi and Eldorado Climbing Walls.

Hosted by Something Independent, which gathers lifestyle-oriented entrepreneurs to spark innovation and share ideas, the annual confab has grown into a celebration of the state’s most inspired businesses.
“Collectively, you are carrying the torch for Colorado,” Something Independent boss Chuck Sullivan told the 11 finalists.

Each contender – culled from more than 125 initial applicants – submitted a 90-second video that wrapped up their vision and Colorado’s role in their inspiration. Click the highlighted links to see the videos.

* Cortez’s Osprey Packs told of the joy of testing their designs.
* Tenkara USA detailed the simplicity of its Japanese-designed fly-fishing rods.
* Lennie and Amy Eckstein told of their old-world approach to whiskey making at Buena Vista’s Deerhammer Distilling Co.
* Ben Parsons shared his dream behind Denver’s urban Infinite Monkey Theorem winery.
* Mike Maloney explained the military code of honor behind his Kota Longboards.
* Mike Arzt and Frank Phillips shared the inspiration behind their multimedia design and fabrication studio The Public Works.
* Dan and Emma Kigar shared how their 39-year-old Colorado Yurt Company in Montrose has grown into an international leader in fabric structure design.
* The crafty engineers at Wild Goose Canning showed off their unique mobile canning system that’s been embraced by beer makers across the country.
* The backpack designers and builders at Topo Designs highlighted their functional, clean packs.
* And Jake O’Connor told how his ReActive Adaptations in Crested Butte can change lives with burly, offroad handcycles he builds for adaptive athletes like himself.

After an initial round of judging, three finalists took the stage for a Q&A session before the sold-out venue. Disclosure: I’ve been a judge for the past four years.

O’Connor, Phillips and Kelly Alford, one of four founding partners of The Whole Works, spoke about their challenges, learning from mistakes and their plans for the future.

O’Connor, a carpenter who runs every aspect of his handcycle building business, from design to fabrication to sales, said he has spent years “figuring out how to build these things.”
But his rewards move well beyond dollars, especially when he gets a call from a paralyzed buyer who now is able to ride his bike with his kids.
“That still hits me pretty hard,” he said.

Alford said she was surprised by the life-skill training that has accompanied her 10-month-old company’s push to employ women who have spent years relying on federal support.
“They are discovering how to build lives they have never had,” she said.

Alford hopes to seed similar production facilities in other rural towns, offering local designers a venue to test their creations while empowering women by teaching them an in-demand trade.
“We want to bring American manufacturing back to the U.S.,” Alford said. “We want to replicate what we are doing in Rifle. Rather than building one $40 million business, we want to build 40 $1 million businesses, lifting up 40 rural Colorado towns.”

Your best excuse for calling in sick likely won’t hold a candle to these.

CareerBuilder today released its annual study of the most absurd excuses people have used for begging off work. The national survey, conducted by Harris Poll for CareerBuilder, included 3,321 full-time workers and 2,326 H.R pros across various industries and company sizes.

Stanford researcher Donna Bebb mixed environmental trends into the formula for determining the equity value of Vail Resorts. Bebb’s climate exposure model weighs the burden of increased snowmaking, water scarcity, rising energy prices and energy efficiency upgrades. She then integrates these financial impacts of declining snowfall into determining Vail Resorts’ valuation over the next three-to-five years.

Skiers avoid the dirt patches as they descend toward Mountain Village at Vail today April 5th, 2012.The 2011-2012 ski season has been one of the worst on record with almost no snow in the entire month of March, a month when many areas expect their biggest snow totals. At Vail, though skiers were still enjoying the warm temperatures and lack of snow, the ski and snow industry is still suffering from the bad year.Helen H. Richardson, The Denver Post

Working around weather is nothing new for ski resorts. But the sustained drought in California has amplified resort strategies. Vail Resorts is leading the charge in developing warm-weather activities that, ideally, could off-set potential changes in winter business. (Although the company assures analysts its expansive summer development plans are not a hedge but a growth plan.)

The company, with nine major resorts in Colorado, California and Utah, also leads the industry in season pass sales, selling more than 300,000 Epic Passes every season. That season pass revenue – which climbed 22 percent in the company’s fiscal 2015 year, fueling its highest-ever annual revenue of $1.4 billion – irons out the seasonal flow of its largely winter-based businesses.
Vail Resorts also has increased the efficiency of its snowmaking equipment, which saved the company $2 million in energy costs last year.
But those strategies are working against a 20-year trend of declining seasonal snowfall totals across its network of resorts.

So, did Stanford researchers conclude Vail, which was trading at about $108 a share on Wednesday, is a dangerous investment due to its climate exposure?

Still, the model is a viable tool for investors, writes Bebb.
“The climate exposure equity model illustrates that climate change for (Vail Resorts) and the ski industry needs to be addressed in current valuations, and the financial impact can be measured,” Bebb concludes. “Despite efforts by (Vail Resorts) to offset the impact of lower snowfall on its valuation (by selling Epic Passes, increasing summer resort offerings, investing more in higher efficiency snowmaking equipment, and other methods), climate change negatively affects its financial performance.”

American and USAir merged in 2013, and the USAir brand has slowly been phased out. October 17th marks the end of USAir flight: USAir’s website will forward to AA.com, the USAir app will be disabled and all records will be merged. American Airlines has more information on how that could impact travelers, here.

The switch of the reservation system — which tracks all flights, passengers, baggage and other essentials — from the Shares system to the Sabre system will happen behind the scenes, but if past experience serves as example, there will be hiccups felt by travelers.

Budweiser beer cans at a concession stand at McKechnie Field in Bradenton, Fla.

The news agency reported that the U.S. Justice Department is reviewing allegations from craft brewers that when AB InBev acquires a distributor, the Belgium-based brewing conglomerate pushes out competing brands. AB InBev, which makes Budweiser and owns hundreds of other beer brands, recently acquired five distributors in three states.

Leave extra time to get to Denver International Airport over the next few weeks.

From 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. for the foreseeable future, Peña Boulevard will often be reduced to one 45 MPH lane in each direction so crews can complete work on bridges along Peña between I-70 and East 64th Ave.

There is no set schedule for what nights the road will be impacted, according to the airport. It won’t be every night, however.

Inbound Peña locations should be completed by Oct. 31 and outbound Peña locations completed by Nov. 20, according to an airport news release.

The Denver Airport Westin behind the “tents” from the FAA control tower at the Denver International Airport. (Joe Amon, The Denver Post)

Denver International Airport is rapidly becoming one of the most connected airports in the world, according to a study released Monday by industry analysts, OAG International.

OAG’s Megahubs Index 2015 ranks the world’s 50 most-connected airports by examining how many scheduled possible connections the airport has compared to how many destinations are ultimately served by the airport. The survey assesses airports for the volume of daily inbound and outbound flights, well-timed schedules and global connectivity.

Denver ranks eighth among the world’s top 50 megahubs, when both legacy and low-cost airline service is examined, and seventh in the world when only low-cost airlines’ numbers are used. Denver is one of only three airports worldwide ranked in the top 10 on both of these lists, the other two being Sao Paolo, Brazil and Phoenix. The U.S. leads the globe in connectivity, with 22 airports ranked in the top 50, eight of which are in the top 10.

“Connectivity and competition are extremely important in air service development at DEN,” airport spokeswoman Laura Coale said. “All 50 of our top domestic origin and destination markets are served nonstop, and 48 out of 50 have competitive service. This competitive service drives fares down, which has continued to grow the Denver market at rates well above the U.S. average.”

U.S. airports continue to lead the world when it comes to making large airports work asmegahubs, in part because of the size of the U.S. domestic market. Eight of the top 10megahubs, and 22 of the top 50 megahubs are located in the U.S. (OAG)

The study finds U.S. megahubs are typically dominated by one carrier. At Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport — ranked No. 1 in the world — Delta Air Lines owns an 80 percent market share, according to the report. This trend also follows suit in Denver, where United — and its massive network of international Star Alliance carriers — is king.

United and Star Alliance partners made up 51 percent of DIA’s scheduled flights in 2014, Coale said, while low-cost carriers, such as Frontier, Southwest and Spirit, made up 36 percent.

“Basically, the more-dominant a legacy carrier is at an airport, the higher ‘connectivity index’ that airport will have according to OAG’s ranking methodology,” Coale said. “From an international market perspective, the connectivity is key because we need connecting passenger traffic to fill our international flights. Although international demand to and from Denver continues to grow significantly, we still rely on connecting passenger flow.”

When connectivity is based only on low-cost carriers’ routes, OAG finds six of the world’s top 10 low-cost megahubs are in the U.S., and all have one thing in common: large operations by Southwest Airlines. This is true in Denver, Southwest’s fastest growing market, where the airline accounted for 29.7 percent of the airport’s market share in the first half of 2015.

Much of Denver’s attention is focused on landing international routes. In February, the global Routes Americas conference — described as “speed dating for airlines,” where airports and providers woo each other for new service — was held in Denver. At that time, airport CEO Kim Day said DIA was in its 31st straight month of international travel growth, and was looking especially hard at carriers like Turkish Airlines and China Southern Airlines, which serve the key markets of the Middle East and Asia.

Luis Benitez, the director of Colorado’s new Office of Outdoor Recreation Industry, on Monday announced an advisory board listing with outdoor industry heavyweights who will help guide the office.

After a three-month tour of the state – talking with outdoor recreation businesses, nonprofits and industry players – Benitez has identified four pillars for his one-man office: economic development, stewardship and conservation, industry anchors and education.

“Colorado is in a strong position to lead the Outdoor Recreation Industry on many levels, and with the help of the advisory group, the office will not only create the collective voice for the outdoor community and industry in the state, but also craft the collaborative vision for the future of the industry in Colorado,” said Benitez.

His 22-member advisory board represents nearly every aspect of the state’s vibrant recreation community. The board represents a wide array of interests, including conservationists, motorized recreation advocates, educators, non-profit directors, ski resorts and business owners and all veterans of playing in Colorado.

The United States Postal Service is looking to fill more than 900 positions across the Front Range.

USPS is hiring for jobs ranging from temporary clerks to mail handlers and carriers. About 400 jobs are seasonal, according to USPS. The remaining 500 or so could potentially lead to permanent positions, according to spokesman David Rupert. Hourly wages range from $10 to $16.65, and shifts and days off vary.

Emilie Rusch covers retail and commercial real estate for The Post. A Wisconsin native and Mizzou graduate, she moved to Colorado in 2012. Before that, she worked at a small daily newspaper in South Dakota. It's the one with Mount Rushmore.